The Rescue Helicopter Service in 2020

The Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue Service had a busy year in 2020. The Crew were ready and prepared to transfer Covid-19 patients during lock-down earlier in the year as part of the Covid response team and during the lock down, the service continued to help those in need.

The year ended 31 Dec 2020 saw the Canterbury and West Coast crews respond to 869 missions in total. The Crews have seen an 8% increase in mission numbers compared to 2019. The Trust contribute $5,000 to every mission; and the Rescue Helicopter Service could not save lives without your support last year.

Mission statistics for the year were consistent with recent yearly trends ; the majority of callouts for the Canterbury Crew were responding to accidents (48%), medical events (33%) and inter-hospital transfers (19%) making up the remaining 55% of Canterbury missions. The Christchurch based crews attended to a total of 627 missions in 2020. In 2019 the Canterbury Crew responded to 545 missions which shows an increase of 13% in mission numbers for the Crew in 2020.

The West Coast Crews also had a busy year in 2020. Across the year the Greymouth based Crew were tasked to 242 missions. The majority of callouts for the West Coast Crew were responding to medical events (50%). followed by accidents (32%) and inter-hospital transfers (18%). This was not consistent with 2019 trends where the majority of the missions the Crew were tasked to were inter-hospital transfers (45%), followed by accidents (32%) and medical events (23%).

2020 was a difficult year for many and quite simply, without your support we would not be able to save lives. Thank you for supporting the Rescue Helicopter Service in 2020.